Degrees of Separation
by hayairei
Summary: It’s nearly the end of the year, and Shiraishi Megumi’s sure she could send a certain comrade off with a smile on her face -or so she thought.


Title: Degrees of Separation

Pairing: Aizawa/Shiraishi

Summary: It's nearly the end of the year, and Shiraishi Megumi's sure she could send a certain comrade off with a smile on her face -- or so she thought.

Notes: Set after the completion of season 3, before Aizawa went to Toronto. A Christmas special of some sort? I hope you enjoy this! Happy holidays! Reviews, favorites, and follows are all loved!

It was the Christmas eve, another one in which Shiraishi Megumi spent her time in the hospital. Everybody else had left the ER after saying their Christmas greetings, eager to spend it with their loved ones. She got herself drowned in her thoughts as she finished writing her patients record and saw the desk calendar in the staff station. She could fairly remember all the pretty decorations, twinkling lights here and there, and the heavenly smell of Christmas delicacies, but she hadn't celebrated it specially for years, now, being an emergency doctor and all.

(But what she probably didn't realize (and he won't ever tell her he made an effort to make sure of it) that it's been some sort of a tradition to share a few moments with him near one of the numerous small, displayed Christmas tree on the emergency vicinity. Even when Aizawa was part of the Neurosurgery, every year they'd somehow find themselves together talking near a nicely decorated Christmas tree, sharing their burden for the day, talking about their patients with canned drinks in their hands.)

It's been a hard month, because as a staff-leader, she needed to prepare to fill in the absence of two people leaving after the new year. And to not be able to save all the patients that came today was also hard on her. She'd have to compartmentalise herself better. She'd have to learn to teach the fellows with compassion and perception as Hiyama did, and do not even let her start on Aizawa, his skills were totally irreplaceable. And it was not just about losing two great doctors, but indispensable comrades who had helped her grow and shaped her to be who she was today.

She knew she told Aizawa they'd become stronger in the midst of his absence, but today proved they hadn't been able to do that, yet. And that disconcerted her more.

A little bit emotional, she headed towards the office in a trance. She entered the room absentmindedly and was a little startled when she saw Aizawa on his desk, fully concentrated, typing on his laptop silently. All she could hear was her footsteps and his fingers typing on the laptop's keyboard, so she decided to clear her throat in hope to catch his attention.

"Good work today, Aizawa-sensei," she said, trying to be as calm as possible.

"Ah," he caught her eyes in acknowledgement for a second before continuing his work.

Shiraishi went straight ahead towards the heli-roster, not stopping by her desk across him first. Apparently someone decided that it was a good idea to put one of the numerous small Christmas tree inside the office near to the roster and that caught the female staff-leader off-guard as she caught sight of it. She gazed at the sight in front of her, and mumbled to herself, "It's really that time of the year, huh?"

Aizawa heard the soft murmur and looked up to find her mesmerized in front of the decorated tree. He knew it's been a rough day for her and that she's not alright -he saw it in her eyes as she greeted him before- so he sped up doing whatever he needed to do.

The female staff-leader finally turned her attention towards what initially she was after, the heli-roster. She took a boardmarker from the stationary case and write what she needed to on the board and finally arranged the roster for the next day. She was about to put the marker back on its place when she felt his presence next to her.

"Tomorrow is really your last day on heli-duty, huh, Aizawa-sensei?" She smiled half-heartedly, staring dispiritedly at the roster, before finally putting the marker on the stationary case. She grazed at each one of the staff magnetic-photo on the whiteboard, looking at each of their faces with so much concern and a million thoughts running through her brain.

"Yes. Shiraishi," he stopped talking midway as he noticed her eyes turned glassy, much like that time when she knew Fujikawa was hurt at the subway station incident. All the words on his throat got stuck and he didn't know what to do.

She balled her fist upon an empty spot on the board, "Could you not leave us?" A poignant silence filled the air as the words reverberated. He knew she was trying hard not to let the tears out. When she realized what she said, she quickly apologized,"Sorry, that was not appropriate for me to say. Even I was the one who told you to go, wasn't I?" And she faked a laugh, reminiscent of the one she gave when he rejected her after she asked him to come back to lifesaving. Aizawa didn't like it one bit.

He was about to assure her that the team would be alright without him and Hiyama, because everybody knew the fellows had been progressing greatly but she defeated him to it, "I just haven't been able to show you how we'll become stronger without you here," and a tear trickled down her cheeks, her attempt at keeping the emotion to herself failed.

Aizawa was never really good with handling emotions, and at times like this he truly wished the psychologists would publish a book in which he could study on how to properly behave towards unpredictable situations such as this. He fiddled with his thumb, unsure of what to do.

"I'm sorry, this must have been my PMS talking, making me so irrational," she tried to lightened the air and wiped the tear stains on her reddened cheeks. But then she felt a hand closing the gap of their bodies from behind and that freezed her movements.

Aizawa's right hand hugged her shoulders tightly, his chest glued to her rigid back and he rested his chin on her left shoulder. He whispered softly to her ears, "I'll come back, you know that. You have until then to prove your point," and after he realized what he did, he reluctantly let go of her.

He expected an awkward tension between them for they never was this close physically. What he didn't expect was for Shiraishi to face him, look at him in the eyes before she zestfully hugged him and cried in his chest comfortably as if she always belonged to him. He ran a hand on her back, comforting her, with the other on her head, tenderly caressing her hair.

Aizawa thought it would be hard to live without her after this. How he managed to do so all this while was a wonder he had to learn again and he was not actually looking forward to it.


End file.
